All Will Be Revealed 03.31.12

[TxJole]

Marketing 101 by Nautique. Release info too soon lose boat show sales on current production and leave an income gap while awaiting a new design. Release just in time to build hipe for the buyers on the fence after the shows. Hats off to Nautique for a perfect marketing job. My dealer has been telling me for months to look for something new this summer.

[NautiqueJeff]

[aarond0083]

The lip on that wake is crazy huge.

[Gasman87]

Boy O Boy , you sure can't please everyone !! When Porsche comes out with a new model , they don't say " well maybe you should wait till next year to purchase , we might come out with a new body style soon "

[bchesley]

That wake looks ridiculous....

[migs]

look at all the vert on that wake. Sik!

[NautiqueJeff]

More words from Murray:

Early mornings, late nights, and plenty of trips back to the drawing board became the story of our lives for much of the duration of this project. Everything that starts out as a great idea and theory on paper sometimes becomes a humbling reality once it is actually put in the water and tested for the first time. We were dedicated to keeping the promise that we would not compromise at all when creating this boat and I’m proud to say that what has come out of all the hard work we put in paid off in a big way.
Keeping everything abstract and off the radar was established from the start, so we came up with the code name “Gray” when referring to the project. Working on something so monumental, it was hard to keep my excitement from showing through at times but we were all sworn to secrecy and I had to reserve my urge to talk about what we were doing to the handful of people that were on the inside during the initial phases.

Having our own test lake at the Nautique factory allowed us to constantly make changes to the hull to dial it in. All of the riders involved have a different style of riding and take different things into consideration when determining the perfect shape of a wake and how the boat performs under every circumstance considered. Remember, this boat had to be up to the ideal standards of every person on the team so these evaluations and tests were a very critical part of the process. I was always impressed to see some of the different techniques the engineers used to test how their design would react in the water when developing the hull. Every drop of water was accounted for and every inch of the hull surface was put under a microscope.


Once the final tweaks were made we brought in Scott Byerly and east coast surfing/shaping legend Scott “Butch” Bouchard to get input on the wakesurfing wake before making the finishing touches.
Testing lasted well over a year before we moved to the inside of the boat and the interior was laid out and implemented into Gray. The riders didn’t just walk away after the wake was created, we spend just as much time driving these boats as we do riding behind them so the information kept flowing until the last wrench was turned.


Reps didn’t know about Gray. Dealers didn’t know about Gray. It didn’t exist. Kinda like some super-secret covert government ninja program where people don’t have names, just numbers or logos. These were exciting times at Nautique, every one of us were proud to be included and took our involvement very seriously. I can’t wait until the world gets to see what came out of all of this. Only one more week until we approach the moment that will change it all

[Chexi]

Let's just hope it doesn't turn out like the car Homer Simpson designed...

At any rate, I have to admit that I am excited to see what they have created.

[gride]

The homer Simpson car was already revealed. It's called the new x-star. I am getting more excited by the day. I totally understand seeing a wake in pics and vids and all that, but it seriously looks to be above jd's knees when he's in the trough.

[AllianceBJJ]

. I totally understand seeing a wake in pics and vids and all that, but it seriously looks to be above jd's knees when he's in the trough.

JD is like 5'4, so not sure if that tells us much about the size of the wake yet....

[Orbiter]

Real Talk. I want to be excited about this without restraint. Unfortunately I've turned the corner on all the pre-news news and now I just need to see it. That's me, that's my opinion. If I am on my own with this, I am ok with it but it makes me sick to my stomach that they're already throwing around talk of the "small wake" r&d that they've done for beginners. Similarly I could not care less about surf. I do not care about beginners riding behind this (presumed) 23ft-25ft wakeboarding monster. I wish they would stop with that line of pre-sales garbage and leave the amateur hour for Tige to bat clean up for. They can make those "it's wonderful for everybody" claims in the dealerships when the time comes and when we don't have to worry about it casting doubt on what could have been a great design (and maybe it still is).

But right now the last thing I want to hear are those apologetic statements that doomed the original 226 in the hearts of many, and have proven to be a fault with the design of the 230. Just once I would like them to take the gloves off and say "This thing is 25 feet long and weighs about 5000lbs. Grandma and Grandpa should ride behind that 211 if they want, this is not the boat for them because its wake is plain enormous." Nobody, N O B O D Y has managed to pull off small wake and big wake in one boat without 2,000lbs of ballast playing a role. Nobody. Not one boat. None. The more they dabble in small wake tech, and choose to talk about it... the more I see wasted R & D dollars that will just make this thing more expensive.

The wake **looks** big in the videos. Good. Presuming it is coming from Grey (that better be a reference to a whale or it's the most boring skunk works project codename I've ever heard of). But in my opinion they should have nipped the one size fits all talk in the bud & retracted it. It has thrown a pall over this whole thing that I am having trouble getting past.

[gride]

He's actually about 5'8. I'm 5'7 and used to ride with him almost daily. Usually the knee high description is a drastic overstatement, but we shall see.

[tdc_worm]

Real Talk. I want to be excited about this without restraint. Unfortunately I've turned the corner on all the pre-news news and now I just need to see it. That's me, that's my opinion. If I am on my own with this, I am ok with it but it makes me sick to my stomach that they're already throwing around talk of the "small wake" r&d that they've done for beginners. Similarly I could not care less about surf. I do not care about beginners riding behind this (presumed) 23ft-25ft wakeboarding monster. I wish they would stop with that line of pre-sales garbage and leave the amateur hour for Tige to bat clean up for. They can make those "it's wonderful for everybody" claims in the dealerships when the time comes and when we don't have to worry about it casting doubt on what could have been a great design (and maybe it still is).

But right now the last thing I want to hear are those apologetic statements that doomed the original 226 in the hearts of many, and have proven to be a fault with the design of the 230. Just once I would like them to take the gloves off and say "This thing is 25 feet long and weighs about 5000lbs. Grandma and Grandpa should ride behind that 211 if they want, this is not the boat for them because its wake is plain enormous." Nobody, N O B O D Y has managed to pull off small wake and big wake in one boat without 2,000lbs of ballast playing a role. Nobody. Not one boat. None. The more they dabble in small wake tech, and choose to talk about it... the more I see wasted R & D dollars that will just make this thing more expensive.

The wake **looks** big in the videos. Good. Presuming it is coming from Grey (that better be a reference to a whale or it's the most boring skunk works project codename I've ever heard of). But in my opinion they should have nipped the one size fits all talk in the bud & retracted it. It has thrown a pall over this whole thing that I am having trouble getting past.

i find it interesting that people want or insist that for something to be effective, it has to be one dimensional. it wasnt long ago that the light truck industry (which interestingly stirs very similar debates amongst its loyalists) were up in arms when Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota and Nissan decided there was a market for trucks that did things other than just tow and haul at their GCWR (i.e ride well unloaded, carry the family, have increased fuel economy, have various creature comforts like leather and nav). the reality is that the manufacturers didnt decide there was a market for such trucks, the market demanded them. As such, the market demands that as a wake sports boat price goes up, the more things it better do well. I primarily fruit boot, but i have been injured enough to realize there is extreme value in my 230's ability to wake skate and wake surf while i am on the mend... but we can agree to disagree.

[210GA]

Maybe it's this?!?

[tke104]

i find it interesting that people want or insist that for something to be effective, it has to be one dimensional. it wasnt long ago that the light truck industry (which interestingly stirs very similar debates amongst its loyalists) were up in arms when Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota and Nissan decided there was a market for trucks that did things other than just tow and haul at their GCWR (i.e ride well unloaded, carry the family, have increased fuel economy, have various creature comforts like leather and nav). the reality is that the manufacturers didnt decide there was a market for such trucks, the market demanded them. As such, the market demands that as a wake sports boat price goes up, the more things it better do well. I primarily fruit boot, but i have been injured enough to realize there is extreme value in my 230's ability to wake skate and wake surf while i am on the mend... but we can agree to disagree.

I agree completely. While I personally wouldn't care if this boat didn't have a good small wake, I understand that there are a ton of people who would. The fact is that most people who are going to buy this boat are not pro level riders, and CC doesn't want to shy away potential buyers because when their 13 year old rides behind this boat at 19 mph, the wake is mush. CC is in the business of selling boats; they are not in the business of making the best possible wakeboard boat while alienating 90% of the people that could actually afford it. Obviously they are going to put some R&D into the surf wake (or at least say they did). Surfing has gotten huge in the past 10 years. I know there are people who don't care about wakesurfing, but I think there are more people who care than don't care, and I would be willing to bet that the people who do care are the people with the money.

Also, it doesn't bother me that CC is making all this hype about their new probably flagship boat. If you were in the business of selling boats, and you were proud of a product that took years to create wouldn't you get the word out as well? I actually really like the way CC is going about it. They are showing pro riders actually ride behind the boat and having them talk about the wake and the design process that went into it, before showing all of the interior features and bells and whistles. I'm not trying to bash MC, but they announced their new flagship boat months ago and there are still limited shot of its wake (there are plenty of interior walk-throughs and videos of the electronic rising dashboard though). CC hasn't even formally announced this boat yet and there are plenty of shots of the wake in action (I know it's in a controlled environment and I'm sure they chose only the best shots).